The gallery passes by as a bluebird sits on the sign post for the sixth hole during the first round of the Toshiba Classic at the Newport Beach Country Club in Newport Beach on Friday, March 9, 2018. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

NEWPORT BEACH – Vijay Singh is a World Golf Hall of Famer with 34 career PGA Tour victories, including a Masters title, two PGA Championships and a FedEx Cup title. He won 22 titles after age 40, breaking Sam Snead’s all-time record. He won three tour money titles and once was the No. 1 player in the world.

So when he turned 50 in 2013 and became eligible for PGA Tour Champions, he admits now that he thought he would win early and often on the senior tour. He was wrong.

Now 55, Singh shot a 5-under 66 on Sunday to win the Toshiba Classic by one stroke for his first PGA Tour Champions individual title in 27 events, ending a nearly 10-year winless drought dating to the PGA Tour’s 2008 Deutsch Bank Championship.

What does it mean to Singh to finally break through on PGA Tour Champions?

“I knew it was going to happen, but I didn’t know when,” said Singh, whose 3-foot birdie putt on the par-5 18th proved his margin of victory. “It’s just been a long, long drought, a lot of injuries, a lot of bad golf — you name it. But it’s nice to win. It’s the first win in a while and hopefully this is the start of many to come.”

To be specific, his victory drought lasted 9 years, 6 months and 10 days, dating to the second of his back-to-back FedEx Cup playoff victories on Sept. 1, 2008. That was the year he won the FedEx Cup Trophy and $10 million bonus on the way to PGA Tour Player of the Year honors. (A year ago, Singh and Carlos Franco won the Legends of Golf at Big Cedar Lodge in Missouri, but that was a Champions team event.)

When he began competing sporadically on PGA Tour Champions in 2013, Singh said he initially had unrealistic expectations.

“I put a lot of pressure on myself when I first came out here,” he said. “Every time I teed up . . . I thought I had to win. The more I did that, the more I didn’t win, the harder it got.”

He also conceded that going back and forth from PGA Tour events to Champions events the past five years has made it even more difficult to be successful. (For example, last year he played 12 Champions events and 18 PGA Tour events. This year, he’s played three Champions events and four on the PGA Tour. He’s also competing in the PGA Tour’s Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill next weekend.)

“Yeah, it’s pretty hard (to do that),” he said. “It’s harder coming from the regular tour to here than going back out there because I’m so used to playing out there. Coming out here, it’s like I put so much pressure on myself to perform well; and obviously the golf courses are not as long (on the Champions tour) and frustration just takes the better part of me when I’m out here. My patience has been really bad.

“Everybody out here . . . can play; they’re good players. So whoever’s coming out here thinking they can just come and win, it’s harder than that. That’s what I found out, anyway.”

It also was anything but easy for Singh on Sunday. He started the day two shots behind Pernice, the first- and second-round leader, but birdied two of the first three holes to move into the lead. Not long therafter, there was a six-man logjam at the top of the leaderboard because the overnight rain that softened the greens led to a lot of birdies.

Tolles, who hasn’t won a tournament since 1994 on what is now the Web.com Tour, shot a 6-under 30 on the front nine to get into contention. When he birdied the par-4 14th par-5 15th holes, he was the sole leader at 11 under. But a 3-putt bogey on No. 17 and a missed 5-footer on No. 18 ended his chances.

Scott McCarron also moved into a tie for the lead at 10 under with back-to-back birdies on No. 15 and No. 16 before a 3-putt bogey on No. 17 cost him his title shot. Pernice missed an 8-footer for birdie on No. 17 that dashed his chances.

When McCarron and Pernice failed to eagle No. 18 – each settled for birdie to tie for second – Singh was a champion for the first time in nearly a decade.

NOTES: Coto de Caza resident Paul Goydos finished at 2-under and tied for 33rd. With an off week on the PGA Tour Champions schedule, he has committed to play in the PGA Tour’s Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, where he won his first PGA Tour event in 1996 . . . Chuck Finley, the winningest pitcher in Angels history, caddied for tour pro John Riegger over the weekend . . . Schwab Cup points leader Jerry Kelly (T26 through two rounds) withdrew before the final round because of a family illness. . . World Golf Hall of Famer Tom Watson, 68, matched his age with a 3-under 68 on Sunday, the eighth time he has shot or bettered his age.

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